21 May 2008

There's been a massive effort by politicoveterans to try and get the Webb GI Bill passed along with the war-funding bill, but due to a bunch a skezebag Senators porkin' up the joint, this baby might be DOA when it gets to the Prez. The AP explains:

Senators are acting as if the war funding bill coming to the floor Tuesday is the last train leaving the station, and, as a result, have added billions of dollars for pet programs and hitched on several policy "riders" as well. Few if any other spending bills are likely to come before the Senate this election year, which makes the supplemental measure an even more attractive vehicle for carrying spending proposals that would stall otherwise.

Bah! I donn't want to talk too much about the new GI Bill and how great it would be for enlisted guys getting out, just because I might jinx it. So here's P.J. O' Rourke accurately describing politicians better than I ever could:

After all my time covering politics, I know a lot of politicians. They’re intelligent. They’re diligent. They’re talented. I like them. I count them as friends. But when these friends of mine take their intelligence, their diligence, and their talent and they put these into the service of politics, ladies and gentlemen, when they do that, they turn into leeches upon the commonwealth. They are dogs chasing the cat of freedom. They are cats tormenting the mouse of responsibility. They are mice gnawing on the insulated wiring of individualism. They are going to hell in a hand basket, and they stole that basket from you. They are the ditch carp in the great river of democracy. And this is what one of their friends says.

While these piggies might be cute and/or delicious, there's nothing good about pork!

Who is This Clown?

Nixon is a former Navy guy who did a couple of deployments at sea and spent a year in Iraq. He enjoys reading and writing about the strange intersection between war, politics, and the media. He enjoys being an ex-pat and NGO employee in Bangkok for the time being.